Sunday, July 11, 2010

Old Fashioned Green Living

This afternoon as Emery and I sat next to each other churning ice cream made from our goats milk and eggs from our chickens we talked about how so much of the talk these days is about Green living and its a good conversation to have, only its turned into some sort of marketing frenzy that has people spending lots of GREEN.

I made a lentil loaf today and covered it in the oven with a cookie sheet, no need for aluminum foil...after all what did your great grandmother do ? She used another pan to cover the one in the oven if what was being baked needed to be covered. And then what did she do in place of plastic wrap for storing food, simple really. I do it too. Most of my stainless steel bowls can be covered with a pot lid that is the same size or many mixing bowls that are used for storage too, can be covered with a dinner plate or a bread plate if the bowl is small.

Imagine if we all went back to doing things this way, we would be living with a lot less plastic waste in the dumps. I still wrap sandwiches in wax paper, our local Whole Foods sells great wax paper sandwich bags just like my mother used to wrap my sandwiches when I was in grade school. Simple solutions really, for a serious issue.

Living so old fashioned just naturally manifests itself as living green. Home made soap, home made laundry soap. Heating with downed wood, burns clean, no fossil fuel needed and it helps folks get rid of fallen trees on their land. No paper towels or napkins used, cuts down on the amount of trees used for things that cloth can do better. Cleaning cloths to clean up spills and cloth napkins on the table don't require much space in the washing machine. No need for a clothes dryer. A clothes line works great. Its good exercise, lifting bending, reaching etc. Using natures resources to dry the clothes is a great way to be living greener and once again, your great grandmother probably did the very same thing. It gets you outside, listening to the birds sing and watching the clouds drift by.

Forget using all these fancy kitchen machines that use electricity that is so often requires some sort of fossil fuel to keep it going. Make bread without a machine, it keeps the arm and hand muscles strong and consider a hand crank egg beater to whip things up. Living like great grandma has a lot of benefits, one of which, you sleep well at night and for me, I am glad to hit the hay after its been dark a couple hours. No desire for me to be burning the midnight oil. Sleep comes easy and that's the way I like it.

You don't need to buy a ton of new fangled "green" things to step lightly on the earth. Just live old fashioned and you will be living very green.

here are a couplr links that might help you decide to dump some of the toxins in your daily life

My great great great grandmother lived totally green and never knew what that term even meant ! She is seen here with my great great grandmother and her siblings who lived without all those things we think we have to have in order to live our lives.

7 Comments:

My HOA bylaws are strict (which we for the most part love). Sadly, it prohibits clothes lines!! We still rarely use the dryer, and are totally happy with wooden racks and hangers; unmentionables go on a swirly pin-held hanging system.

Of course, city life restricts farm animals, but we have 18 solar panels and a solar water heater. I ride public transportation and tote my lunch.

The people who say, "They couldn't be bothered, or couldn't do without," just don't get it. I try desperately to just focus on what I can do for my home, family and community to make it a better place...even if it is not using one plastic baggie per day!

Thanks for the suggestion to use cookie sheets instead of foil, and plates and lids for bowls in the fridge. I've often wondered how it was done before the weird invention of plastic wrap. I've got extra plates that will do the job nicely.

Louisa May Alcott bought a house for her aging family, and said the great thing about it, it had no kitchen. She had someone else do the cooking, and bring it over to them. She was very tired of the work it took to make meals (and clean up). Granted, she was ill during all her adult life, but it does make me appreciate some of the help I get from modern conveniences. I like my fridge and freezer! I hope we can find ways to power some things from a clean source - I don't think we can cut enough ice from the lakes to fill every fridge now - too many people.

Patty,Just wanted to let you know that because of your blog, central PA saved a little bit of energy today! I went downstairs to get a laundry tub ful of towels and my running clothes and I came so close to tossing it in my dryer. But then I remembered your post on 'green' living, I decided that despite being bone-tired and needing towels, I was hanging them out. So I exaggerate! But your blog did cross my mind as I loaded up my clothes to hang out on the line.This great human race - we all touch one another!Beth aka oneoldgoat

I baked bread this weekend - 2 loaves of a sweet wheat bread. I put them in a plastic bag, but it occurred to me that I really didn't know how to store them if I didn't use plastic. Now I know thanks to you! I've never thought of using a bowl with a plate on it, although I often bake with a cookie sheet on my baking dish. It seems so simple now! Thanks for the tip!

About Me

Just wanting to live simply in a complex world.
simple living isn't about living backwards, its about living an uncomplicated life that is based on love, friendships and the basics. Anything beyond that is simply the frosting on the cake and admittedly frosting is good when it doesn't come with a price that makes you loose vision of what really counts in life or overpowers the flavor of the cake.